[ << Musical notation ][Top][Contents][Index][ Specialist notation >> ]
[ < Single entry fonts ][ Up : Fonts ][]

Entire document fonts

It is possible to change the fonts used in LilyPond’s default font families by calling the function make-pango-font-tree. The arguments are substitutions for the ‘roman’, ‘sans’ and ‘typewriter’ font families (in that order), followed by a scaling factor. Similar to single fonts (see Single entry fonts), font families are set up by using comma-separated lists of font family names, but without style options.1

Note that make-pango-font-tree resets the notation fonts to ‘Emmentaler’ as the default.

The example below adjusts the font size in relation to the global staff size. 

\paper {
  #(define fonts
    (make-pango-font-tree "Linux Libertine O"
                          "Nimbus Sans, Nimbus Sans L"
                          "DejaVu Sans Mono"
                          (/ staff-height pt 20)))
}

\relative c'{
  c1-\markup {
    roman,
    \sans sans,
    \typewriter typewriter. }
}

[image of music]

LilyPond provides an alternative, more flexible interface to set global font families. It allows you to change only specific font family names, leaving others set to default values. The following example has the same effect as the above make-pango-font-tree example; the syntax for font family names is identical. If you do not change the staff size from the default of 20pt, the line containing the #:factor keyword is unnecessary. 

\paper {
  #(define fonts
    (set-global-fonts
     #:roman "Linux Libertine O"
     #:sans "Nimbus Sans, Nimbus Sans L"
     #:typewriter "DejaVu Sans Mono"
     ; unnecessary if the staff size is default
     #:factor (/ staff-height pt 20)
    ))
}

Additionally, set-global-fonts can also set the music notation fonts. The following example has the same effect as the previous examples, because it uses the default notation fonts. For more information, see Replacing the notation font. 

\paper {
  #(define fonts
    (set-global-fonts
     #:music "emmentaler"            ; default
     #:brace "emmentaler"            ; default
     #:roman "Linux Libertine O"
     #:sans "Nimbus Sans, Nimbus Sans L"
     #:typewriter "DejaVu Sans Mono"
     ; unnecessary if the staff size is default
     #:factor (/ staff-height pt 20)
    ))
}

Note that each call to set-global-fonts completely resets both the main notation and text fonts.2 If any font category is left unspecified, the respective default font (family) gets used for that category. Each call of set-global-fonts affects all \book blocks that follow it. If there are multiple \book blocks and you want to use different fonts for each, simply call set-global-fonts again, like this: 

\paper {
  #(define fonts
    (set-global-fonts
     …
    ))
}
\book {
  …
}

\paper {
  #(define fonts
    (set-global-fonts
     …
    ))
}
\book {
  …
}

See also

Notation Reference: Finding fonts, Font families, Single entry fonts, Selecting font and font size, Font markup, Replacing the notation font.

Footnotes

[1] This implies that, contrary to single fonts, a trailing comma is never necessary.

[2] To be more precise, ‘emmentaler’ (with a lowercase ‘e’, which is mandatory in the argument to #:music and #:brace) is a set of fonts (but not a font family in the FontConfig sense) that LilyPond accesses and manages directly. Instead of various styles, however, it comes with different design sizes, see Music fonts and Replacing the notation font. The corresponding FontConfig font names are ‘Emmentaler-size’, where size is one of the numbers 11, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20, 23, and 26.

For braces, the FontConfig font name is ‘Emmentaler-Brace’.

[ << Musical notation ][Top][Contents][Index][ Specialist notation >> ]
[ < Single entry fonts ][ Up : Fonts ][]

<< Back to Documentation Index

LilyPond — Notation Reference v2.25.3 (development-branch).